


Little Soldier Girl

by kilroyactual117



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Kyoshi Island, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, Shinto, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25438408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kilroyactual117/pseuds/kilroyactual117
Summary: With the One Hundred Year War ended, the Kyoshi warriors return home to their island. The war might've ended peacefully for the Avatar, but in his place, many paid with their lives. No one understands that price better than Suki and what's left of her Kyoshi warriors.Suki grieves as she returns home to bury her dead.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Little Soldier Girl

**Author's Note:**

> I recently finished Avatar for the first time and I absolutely fell in love with the show. In particular, I fell in love with Suki from the moment she appeared on the screen. She was a truly badass warrior and wasn't afraid to tell the Avatar or his crew what was up. She was so fantastically cool, but I felt her later appearances captured less and less of that amazing spark she had initially until she became little more than Sokka's love interest. I didn't feel like the show did enough to reflect what she would've experienced on the battlefield and in prison, so I wanted to write her a real ending. I can't promise it will be happy, but it will be true to her warrior's heart.
> 
> If you want to cry while reading this lookup Taylor Davis's instrumental rendition of "Leaves From the Vine" and put it on in the background. Enjoy!

For the first time in her career as an officer, Suki heard the rumble of Fire Nation tank treads and felt no fear. As she rested in the cupola of her captured machine, repainted in Earth Kingdom green, bound for the small town she’d grown up in, she felt a lot of things, but for once, no fear.

And somehow that lack of fear was starting to unnerve her.

At the age of ten, she’d begun her path to war. That was the first time she put on the makeup of Kyoshi and raised her fan blades as weapons. For the next eight years, war would consume her life. Incessant training would occupy her every waking hour. 

She wasn’t just training to be an elite Kyoshi warrior, she was training to lead them into battle, and possibly to their deaths. It left her little time to prepare herself emotionally, to be the girl that she knew she was inside.

At the age of fifteen she faced the enemy for the first time, and by the age of sixteen she’d finished her first war. At only sixteen and a half years old, that lack of an emotional center was starting to bite her in the ass.

The driver of her tank rounded the corner of the dusty dirt path that led to the village on the island of Kyoshi. In the distance, Suki could see the statue of Avatar Kyoshi, still singed from the fire that Zukko’s soldiers scorched the town with. The huts around her were long since rebuilt, but the ashes were left on the statue of Kyoshi.

The damage didn’t tarnish Kyoshi’s godlike form, however. If anything, the scars only exemplified her status as a warrior. 

Suki wished she could say the same for the many scars she’d earned along her campaign. 

Suki waved the tank behind her forward. Together, the two vehicles carried all that was left of the platoon of Kyoshi warriors who’d left their island a year ago to face the Fire Nation with the army of the Earth kingdom. In one way or another, Suki had made sure they’d all returned home. 

Some sat on the tank’s frontal armor, their bandaged limbs pulled close to them. Others sat on the side skirts, their missing eyes bandaged, staring off into the void. An even more unlucky few rode on the back of the tank’s chassis in boxes, their eyes closed and their katanas clutched in their hands.

Suki brought all her girls home, although she doubted their mothers would see it that way.

As they approached, the villagers sprang forth from their houses. A band set up in the town square began to play an old, somber tune that they’d changed to fit their arrival.

_ Leaves from the vine _

_ Falling so slow _

_ Like fragile tiny shells _

_ Drifting in the foam _

_ Little soldier girl _

_ Come marching home _

_ Brave soldier girl _

_ Comes marching home _

The Kyoshi Warriors parked their captured vehicles in the town square beneath the statue. Crowds of villagers, impatient friends and parents of the warriors they held so dear, looked ready to rush forward and tackle their loved ones, but Suki held up a silent hand to stop them.

The villagers became silent as the tank’s engines cut and Suki dismounted her vehicle. Slowly her warriors followed after her, taking their first steps on the soil of their home in over a year.

Those that could walk helped those that couldn't. Those that could see lead the blind. Those that were still strong enough to lift a casket after months in a Fire Nation death camp lifted the coffins of the five warriors who hadn't made it home.

Before long the Kyoshi warriors, broken as they were, stood in formation in front of the statue of their enshrined Avatar. Sokka and Ty Lee, the group's newest members, placed the first casket before the statue, followed by four others.

Suki took her place in front of her soldiers and faced the statue of Kyoshi, silhouetted in the light of the rising sun. 

She bowed low, and her warriors followed her lead, all the while the band played.

_ Little soldier girl _

_ Come marching home _

_ Brave soldier girl _

_ Comes marching home _

Suki remembered being taught that the tradition of bowing like this came from when warriors of the past would bare their necks to a sword strike to show their trust in another.

Right now, she wished someone would strike her down and get it over with. Sixteen was too young to have led soldiers to their deaths in battle, and sixteen was too young to hear others call you a hero for it. She didn’t want to have to live the rest of her miserable life knowing that she’d made it out unscathed while her soldiers left their limbs and lives behind on Fire Nation soil so that the Avatar could end the conflict peacefully.

She wondered if his peace took into account how many people had to die so that he could spare the Fire Lord’s miserable life. They were just leaves from the vine to him. They could fall and rot and no one would notice.

In the end though, she was still their leader. Their deaths were still her fault. For the rest of her life, she would live with the decay of their death weighing heavy on her soul.

She rose from her bow just as a priest and two miko from Kyoshi’s shrine approached with fresh rags and bottles of ritual sake to purify the bodies. The tradition of their island taught them that death was unnatural, and that its presence tainted those around it. Contact with the dead required physical and spiritual purification to prevent it from infecting your soul.

If that was really the case, Suki doubted that an ocean of sake could wash her clean. 

As the priest approached the coffins, however, the glare of the sun fell upon Kyoshi’s fans. Though they were merely painted wood, they began to glow as though they were made of real, razor sharp metal.

Suki glanced up as the outline of the statue began to glow, not from the sun, but from a bright yellow light that emanated from every side of it. The light grew bigger and brighter, and became more fluid, until finally it formed itself into the shape of Avatar Kyoshi.

Suki stood in awe with the rest of the village as the glowing, golden figure dropped to the ground and began a ritual dance. Her fans sliced the air in sync with the sharp movement of her feet until the ground began to rise up from underneath her. The moist soil of the island slowly wrapped the coffins in its embrace before beginning to pull them into the ground.

For a moment, Suki couldn’t believe what she was seeing, then her heart skipped a beat as she realized what was happening. She leapt out of formation and rushed forward, dropping to her knees over the earth where the coffins sank, but she was too late. Only smooth earth remained where the bodies of the five warriors once laid, and the glowing form of Kyoshi had faded.

Suki pounded her fist into the dirt and cried out in rage at the statue towering above her.

“Give them back,” she demanded, “They’re my responsibility.”

She glared at the statue of the Avatar as though that would change her mind, but celestial beings were above soldiers like her. She knew that much.

She let her head hang as she seethed with rage at Kyoshi, and at herself. Hot tears flowed down her cheeks as she wondered how the Avatar could be so cruel. 

When her tears subsided she slid her hand gently over the ground, brushing away the top layer of dirt, only to reveal a newly formed block of granite sitting inches below the surface.

As she dusted it off, an inscription became visible.

_ They didn’t die to be mourned. _

_ They died so that others may live. _

_ Live a good life for those who no longer can. _

Suki lifted her head toward the statue of the Avatar, staring up at her in all her regal glory. She was sure that the great spiritual forces of the world were trying to teach her something, but Suki was a soldier, not a philosopher. She just wanted her friends back.

She rose from the dirt and dusted herself off before turning to face her soldiers. She tried to hide the emotion in her face, even though her tears had already ruined her makeup. 

It was her job to be objective and impartial. If Kyoshi was right about one thing, it was that she didn’t get to mourn her dead soldiers, not while those that were still living were waiting on her.

She bowed deeply to the women who had served with her. They’d never get the credit they deserved for their time in the war, but they would forever have her respect, friendship, and love.

They returned her bow, their faces stoney, but their eyes full of understanding. Like her, they were all simple warriors. They only wished to see their families again, and Suki wouldn’t deny them that any longer.

“Fall out,” Suki called to them.

Without hesitation, the village members swarmed inwards, embracing their daughters as they came running home to greet them. Suki watched as the mass of smiling and teary eyed faces came together as one, embracing each other for the first time in a year.

She felt a pair of arms snake around her waist and pull her close. She didn’t need to hear a dumb joke to know it was Sokka who grabbed her.

“Welcome home Suki,” he said.

Suki was silent. Being home didn’t bring her any relief. After what she’d seen it would probably be a long time before it did.

What did bring her hope was seeing her warriors home and happy again. As long as they were safe, and Sokka was here by her side, they could figure out the next fifty years together.

She looked up at the statue of Avatar Kyoshi one last time before taking Sokka’s hand, and walking away from the crowd that was meant to greet her.

**Author's Note:**

> Love you all. Be sure to let me know what you think and say hi!


End file.
